New Small Schools in N.Y.C. Post Higher Graduation Rate

Small high schools that opened
in New York City in 2002 as part
of a closely watched secondary
school improvement effort there
are graduating far more of their
students on time than other city
high schools, researchers have
found.

At schools that are part of the
city’s New Century High Schools
initiative, 78 percent of students
graduate in four years, compared
with 58 percent at New York City
high schools on average, according
to the final report of an evaluation
by Policy Studies Associates
Inc., a Washington-based research
group that has been studying the
10-year initiative since it began.

The New Century schools enroll
unusually high portions of poor
and minority students and students
with weaker academic
skills. Yet in addition to outpacing
the citywide graduation rate by
20 percentage points, they also
produce a graduation rate nearly
18 percentage points higher than
10 schools with demographically
similar students that were chosen
by researchers as a comparison
group. (See chart below.)

The graduation-rate findings
were the most striking in the Oct.
16 report. The study also found
that only 3 percent of the New
Century high school class of 2006
had dropped out over a four-year
period, compared with nearly 15
percent citywide in 2005. The New
Century students also come to
school more; average daily attendance
was 84 percent in the 2005-
06 school year, compared with 81
percent citywide.

But the study also showed
higher-than-average suspension
rates (7.8 percent, compared
with 6.5 percent citywide in
2005-06), and far more students
earning the less rigorous “local”
diploma—rather than the two
types endorsed by New York
state, the Regents and advanced
diplomas—than at other high
schools. (See chart below.)

The 88 high schools that opened
since 2002 as part of the New
Century High Schools initiative
are among more than 240 new,
small schools that have taken
root in New York during that time
as part of the city’s major campaign
to create more choice and
higher-quality options for students
there.

Work to Be Done

Garth Harries, the chief executive
officer of the New York City
Department of Education’s office
of new schools, said the report confirms
the value of the city’s strategy
in opening scores of small
schools. Many of the large high
schools they are replacing, he said,
graduated fewer than 40 percent
of their students.

But the findings on the types of
diplomas students are earning
show that more work must be
done to fortify high school curricula,
Mr. Harries said. As part of
its stepped-up accountability system,
the city is intensifying efforts
to provide schools with data to
help them keep students on track,
and it is also working with the
City University of New York system
to make high school a
stronger preparation for college,
he said.

Making It Through

An evaluation of the New Century High Schools initiative in New York City found that new small schools created
by the effort graduated larger portions of students in four years than did a group of demographically similar
schools, or high schools citywide. But more of the New Century students earned less-rigorous “local” diplomas.

SOURCE: Policy Studies Associates, Inc.

Robert L. Hughes, the president
of New Visions for Public Schools,
the nonprofit organization that
led the New Century High
Schools initiative, said the low
dropout rate is directly related to
the large portion of students earning
the lowest-rung diploma. “It’s
really the fact that we’re holding
on to the kids” who might otherwise
leave school, he said.

“First we had to reverse the belief
that you couldn’t graduate
kids from high school,” he said.
“Now we have to ensure that rigorous
instruction is occurring in
the classroom.We also know that
college readiness is a much
higher standard, and we need to
focus on that.”

New Visions provided technical
assistance to the schools, in partnership
with the city department
of education, the local
teachers’ and principals’ unions,
and local community organizations,
using grants from the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
the Carnegie Corporation of
New York, and the Open Society
Institute.

Instructional Index

Policy Studies Associates examined
data and survey responses
from 75 of the 88 New Century
schools over four years.

The researchers created an
index to measure instructional
quality, including factors such as
alignment of instruction with
state standards, educational
focus, and effective leadership,
and found that students at
schools scoring high on that index
earned an average of 1.4 credits
per year more than students at
schools scoring lower.

Jessica B. Heppen, the deputy
director of the National High
School Center at the Washington-
based American Institutes
for Research, which has evaluated
high school reform models
but was not involved in the Policy
Studies Associates evaluation,
said the finding bolsters the
hypothesis that attention to instruction
is a “key ingredient” in
a successful small school.

“Perhaps a void this [study]
helps fill is the understanding
that making structural changes
alone isn’t sufficient,” she said.

But Valerie E. Lee, an education
professor at the University of
Michigan, in Ann Arbor, who has
studied the effects of creating
small schools, said that a difference
of 1.4 credits “isn’t much” of
a return for the massive investment
of resources the New Century
initiative represents.

She also questioned the validity
of the graduation-rate data, saying
the fact that students elect to
attend New Century high schools
might suggest added motivation
or engagement that affects the
schools’ outcomes.

Elizabeth R. Reisner, the director
of the Policy Studies Associates
evaluation, said the team
does not have data addressing the
motivation of New Century students,
but she noted that their
8th grade achievement levels
were below those of city students
on average and those in the comparison
group.

Michael Klonsky, the director of
the Small Schools Workshop in
Chicago and a longtime adviser to
small school start-ups nationally,
said he sees it as no surprise that
schools with major political and financial
support would be able to
outperform those with less. And
that gap worries him.

“The new schools don’t want to
recruit the toughest kids, so they
get dumped back in the big, traditional,
overcrowded, underfunded
high schools,” he said. “So
the new schools are getting better
at the expense of the traditional
schools. It’s creating a
two-tiered system of education
in New York.”

Latest Data Stir Concern

The study noted that New Century
schools produced higher
graduation rates with a largely
inexperienced corps of teachers
and principals. Fewer than a
third of its teachers, on average,
were certified.

The researchers also tracked
each group of freshmen who entered
after the class of 2006, excluding
transfer students, and
found that while more students
passed the state Regents exams
required for graduation, the
trend lines worsened in attendance,
suspension rates, and
credit accumulation. Teachers
told researchers that over time,
they were teaching more students,
student discipline declined,
and they had less influence on
curriculum and school policy.

Dan French, the executive director
of the Center for Collaborative
Education, in Boston,
which has evaluated the experience
of small, quasi-independent
“pilot” schools there, said the
teachers’ declining influence on
curriculum and policy suggests a
stronger push to align instruction
with a standards-based curriculum. That could explain the
increasing graduation rate, he
said. The New York study found
that curriculum was growing
more aligned with state Regents
standards over time.

The school staffs’ relative inexperience,
however, could explain
the worsening indicators,
Mr. French said. A rookie team
can manage when start-up
schools are new, adding one
grade at a time, he said. But
when such schools reach their
full complement, the challenges
can overwhelm novices. The pilot
schools saw the same dynamic,
Mr. French said, and began
adding more veteran teachers to
offset it.

“It’s one of the difficulties of
scaling up,” he said. “It suggests
as you increase the size of the
school, it’s harder to build and
maintain the personalized culture
that is attentive to academic challenges
for all kids. It’s something
to pay attention to as schools are
rolling out.”

Coverage of education research is
supported in part by a grant
from the Spencer Foundation.

Vol. 27, Issue 10, Page 10

Published in Print: October 31, 2007, as New Small Schools in N.Y.C. Post Higher Graduation Rate

See other stories on education issues in New York. See data on New York's public school system.

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